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Part of the state’s rebrand is deleting the term “chronic absenteeism.” Schools will no longer be downgraded if students fail to show up, but a school’s overall grade can be “lifted” if students demonstrate “consistent attendance.”
“I don’t know why any Chicago legislator would vote for anything that doesn’t benefit the people that they represent,” said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, before hinting that he may propose a new home for the Bears within the city limits.
A City Council committee determined to maximize revenue from video gambling terminals and eliminate competition for them moved Tuesday to ban sweepstakes machines over Mayor Brandon Johnson’s objections.
Under Senate Bill 3444, developers would not be held responsible for massive harms if they did not act intentionally or recklessly and if they publicly post detailed safety and transparency plans. Instead of limiting liability, Senate Bill 3261 would require artificial intelligence developers to undergo independent audits of their safety and child protection plans, and report serious AI safety incidents to the Illinois Attorney General.
“These families have done everything right and they’re still being squeezed,” state Rep. Nicole La Ha said. “In some of the hardest hit areas, about 10% of homeowners were only able to make partial payments on their property tax bills. That trend points to real financial strain.”
Speaking about the bill now before the Illinois Senate that would allow developers of large projects, including the Bears, to make payments to local taxing bodies in exchange for long-term freezes on property taxes. Mayor Brandon Johnson said, “Without, you know, a clear pathway to provide certainty, as well as equity for everyday working people, I believe that is a mismatch there.”
IDES Director Ray Marchiori said IDES has collected nearly $713 million in overpayments since 2021 and prevented $358 million in further attempts at fraud. When asked $713 million “out of how much,” IDES Chief Financial Officer Brett Cox could not say. State Sen. Chapin Rose remembered the number being in the billions.
The Democratic Whip addressed matters including Amtrak funding, gas prices, data centers, green energy and the farm bill.
Everybody needs a side hustle these days, and mine is Ukraine.
At another point in the four-plus hour deposition, Foxx revealed that when she announced during a luncheon that she would not run for a third term, the presentation was entirely ad-libbed and she had no factual basis for telling the crowd that Marilyn Mulero “went to prison for a crime which she didn’t commit” and “was wrongfully convicted.” Mulero is now using Foxx’s off-the-cuff statements as evidence of her innocence.
But the court’s records are missing addresses for nearly 10,000 of the cases filed between April 2022 and September 2025; the landlord’s address is absent for 98 percent of the cases.
According to the CPD, there were 32 homicides in April, which marks a 39 percent increase over the 23 homicides recorded in the same month last year. Through the first four months of 2026, Chicago has seen 130 homicides, CPD data shows, up from the 120 recorded during the same period in 2025. Despite the recent uptick, the 32 homicides last month were the second fewest for any April in Chicago in more than a decade, trailing only 2025’s total.
Experts in artificial intelligence spoke to state lawmakers recently, providing guidance on four bills introduced in the House, which would regulate and unlock legal remedies against AI companies, platforms and products. A repeated point of contention for the proposed regulations was the patchwork of legislation varying state-to-state stifles innovation nationwide.
More than 160 school districts in Illinois lock kids out of participating in school activities simply because they aren’t full-time public school students. It’s not the law. The Illinois School Code allows school boards to make district activities inclusive for all resident students.
While city leaders often followed past IG Joe Ferguson’s “investigative recommendations” on things like disciplining staffers, he says, outcomes “were much more mixed” when it came to his advice on department operations.
“There’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t make the news, or we may not report to our village boards, but it’s nightly where I’m getting emails from our midnight watch commanders of this town got hit,” Oak Lawn police Chief Daniel Vittorio said. Chicago Ridge, home to about 30 businesses with video gaming terminals, has seen five such burglaries since October.
An analysis conducted by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office and shared with legislators found that from a hypothetical $20 million payment in lieu of taxes made for a large industrial development, a typical Illinois homeowner would see only $1.29 in relief.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said the inquiry will go beyond classroom instruction and examine whether districts are encouraging or facilitating gender transitions without parental notice or consent, including through policies involving students’ names, pronouns or participation in school clubs focused on gender identity. “Illinois is just pushing these radical agendas,” she said.
Bronzeville landlord Ebony Lucas points to a property tax bill where taxes on the building jumped 76 percent. She once paid about $7,400, but a surprise bill in December, right around the holidays, jumped to $21,000.
Brandon Johnson, along with mayors from Broadview, Fox Lake, Lynwood, Palos Hills, and other local municipalities, will argue that the loss of money shared with municipalities from the Local Government Distributive Fund (LGDF) would impact essential services they provide their residents.
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